Diane Keaton

"You have to live life all the way.  Take risks.  Do things you can't imagine."

— Diane Keaton

American Actress

1946 - 

The hardest thing for most people to do is to live life to the fullest.  Usually we hold ourselves back for various reasons — most of them perceived, not real.  We are afraid of the unknown.  We are afraid of what might happen.  Fear dominates us.  We are not willing to risk everything.  We choose to play it safe.  Are you playing it safe in your art?  Or are you swinging for the fences?  Are you living the creative life?

Here is Diane Keaton discussing her memoir, Then Again.

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Annie Dillard

"Write as if you were dying.  At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients.  That is, after all, the case.  What would you begin writing if you knew you would die soon?  What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?"

— Annie Dillard

American Writer

1945 -

These are not idle statements.  Death puts a very different perspective on what we do.  What would you write if you knew you were dying?  Do you have a few final stories to tell or poems to write?  What would you paint?  Would try to create something you have never created or would you paint the same thing you have always painted?  Or would you write at all?  Would let go of your creative impulse?  

What would you write if no one would criticize you?  What would you paint if you knew that no one would laugh?  What would you sing if you knew that people would clap?  

Death is about saying goodbye to what we know.  Death is about letting go of material objects that have been a part of our lives.  Death is about forgetting.  Death is a door through which we all must walk whether we are painters, writers, doctors or lawyers.

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William Sloan Coffin

"All of life is the exercise of risk."

— William Sloan Coffin

American Author, Clergy, Peace Activist

1924 - 2006

Have you ever let fear stand in the way your doing something that you desired to do?  Most of us have.  And yet if we stop and think about it: all life is a risk.  While eating carrots, you can choke and die.  Walking down the street at 6 a.m., you can be hit by a speeding car.  Taking a shower, you can slip and fall and hit your head.  You can visit a doctor and be told that you have cancer and have only six weeks to live.  All life is fraught with risk.  So why haven't you tried that new technique of painting?  Are you afraid you will fail?  Why haven't you sent your novel to a publisher?  Are you afraid of rejection?

Fear is powerful and often stops us from doing what we want to do?  We all have dreams and hopes, but sometimes we are not courageous enough to take that first step into the unknown.  That first step is often the most difficult.  In our minds, we think of all the things that could go wrong.  We should instead focus on our dreams and what we want to accomplish.  What steps are you going to take today to overcome your fears?  

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Walt Disney

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity leads us down new paths."

— Walt Disney

American Film Director, Producer

1901 - 1966

Are you curious about the world around you?  Curiosity fuels our creative thinking.  Curiosity provides the sparks for new ideas.  Disney was the creative genius who changed the world of filmmaking and animation.  What are you doing to change your world?  How are you challenging yourself to try new ideas?  How are you stepping outside your comfort zone?

It is easy to get caught in a rut — to do what is safe and secure.  Creative leaders need to keep moving and growing.  They need to walk down new paths and open new doors.  They need to be curious.

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James Baldwin

"One can give nothing whatever without giving oneself — that is to say, risking oneself.  If one cannot risk oneself then one is simply incapable of giving."

— James Baldwin

American Novelist

1924 - 1987

All art is risk.  As creative leaders we risk being vulnerable to criticism and ridicule.  We risk doubt and failure.  We risk being misunderstood.  Yet, there is no creation without risk.  There is no art without giving of oneself.



Taking a risk requires that we step out of our comfort zone and try something new.  Taking risk helps us to grow and progress as artists.  Taking a risk means that we might fail.  Taking a risk requires courage.



What risks are you not taking because you are afraid?  What risks do you want to take but you don't have the courage?  If you knew that you would die in a year, what risks would you take today?  What truth have you not told because you are afraid of what others might say?

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Ernest Hemingway

"The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity to sacrifice.  Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed."

— Ernest Hemingway

American Novelist

1899 - 1961

As writers, artists and creative leaders we often are vulnerable to the hostile, negative behavior of people who do not understand us and what we represent.  These negative people can be our friends and family initially and the wider world eventually as our creative ideas and works try to find their place in that world.  We need to remain strong and courageous in the face of negative attacks.

As creative leaders we often sacrifice much to achieve our dreams.  We become so focused on and obsessed with our work that we ignore family and friends.  We miss out on the joys of life.  We may forget to take care of our health.  We drink and/or take drugs to kill the demons chasing us.  We suffer ridicule at the hands of those who don't understand us and what we do.

People may hate us when we tell the truth.  Often people are not ready for the truth we have to speak.  They may criticize and condemn us.  They may laugh at us.  We must find the discipline and the courage to speak the truth anyway — to open up and share our thoughts and feelings, to share the beauty we see.

Hemingway At Work

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Alan Alda

"Be brave enough to live creatively.  The creative is the place where no one else has ever been.  You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.  You cannot get there by bus, only by hard work, risking and by not quite knowing what you are doing.  What you will discover will be wonderful: yourself."

— Alan Alda

American Actor, Director, Screenwriter

1936 - 

Have you visited the wilderness of your intuition?  Have you listened to the voice within your spirit?  Have you descended into the depths of your soul?  Have you discovered the nature of your existence?  Creativity is a journey of the spirit to realms not seen by the ordinary eye.  If you have been blessed with the opportunity to travel this road, then you understand the healing power within your soul.  God walks with each of us.  We must learn to decipher his voice from the chaotic noise so we may enjoy the majesty of beauty.

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Wendell Phillips

"Revolutions are not made: they come.  A revolution is as natural a growth as an oak.  It comes out of the past.  Its foundations are laid far back."

— Wendell Phillips

American Abolitionist, Orator, Lawyer, Author

1811- 1884

What, you might ask, do revolutions have to do with creativity?  Revolutions are a creative response to the status quo and happen at all levels of society.  Revolutions are happening in literature and art as each generation rejects the styles of previous generations.  Consider how Impressionism, Cubism and Abstract Expressionism started out as movements outside the mainstream.  

Revolutionaries have to think outside the box.  They have to be willing to see the world through new eyes.  The abolitionists stood up against slavery.  The civil rights activists stood up against segregation.  Wendell Phillips also said:  "Physical bravery is an animal instinct, moral bravery is a much higher and truer courage."  

What risks are you taking in your art?  Your writing?  Are you challenging the status quo?  Are you standing up for what is right?  Are you looking at the world with fresh eyes?  Creative leaders have to think outside the box.  They need to risk trying new techniques — new ways of thinking.

Wendell Phillips was born in Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard Law School.  He was a powerful speaker and became a voice of the anti-slavery movement.

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